a deadly storm, an unsolved disappearance, and a small town brimming with secrecy;
an outcast girl, a boy who only knows how to hide, and the world against them;
what could go wrong?
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
one year later
« • »
It's been a year, almost to the day, since Agent Kent stood on the steps of the Jack Creek courthouse and exposed the dirty truth to the world—about Damien's disappearance, Martha and Hazel's murders, and the cover-up that blanketed the town for nearly fifty years. How people could hold onto secrets that dark, Melita will probably never understand. Part of her will never forgive Martha for the role she played.
Life has remained thankfully uneventful since the close of the chaos; only the occasional car crash or accidental death served to stir the waters of Jack Creek. Melita's days have returned to a familiarly mundane routine, with the only new variable being Harry.
Harry, finally as her boyfriend; then Harry moving in with her; Harry's life completely and faithfully intertwined with hers, as if it weren't already.
Martha's inheritance has recently been paid out and, in a twist of fate, she'd cut Lori completely out and left everything to Melita. It wasn't an exorbitant amount, but enough that she lives comfortably and can finally afford to move with Harry. As if echoing the past in their new lives, they'll be going to Virginia together after both accepting positions with the FBI: Harry as a special agent and Melita as a crime analyst in the BAU. They were going in less than a week, so Melita has spent the past few days packing up the remnant of her and Harry's life in Jack Creek. It will be strange living in a big city for the first time, but she has Harry and her newfound courage to rely on.
The only other occurrence was the unexpected death of Nathaniel Waters while in prison. He'd been in the yard when it happened; a stray bullet, likely the result of someone's nearby target practice gone awry, had flown through the fencing and struck him in the neck. Severed clean through his right jugular and cephalic veins, he'd bled out in moments.
A rather garish, and in Melita's opinion, easy death for a wicked man. The news had given him a five-minute time slot in between traffic reports before they wiped their hands of him. Melita gave him a passing thought, more than he truly deserved, and that was it.
No one mourned his death. There was no funeral; his daughter Janet terminated her rights to the body and gave custody to the state. But nobody felt it fair to spend taxpayer money on a convicted murderer's funeral, so he was cremated and his ashes were buried somewhere secret. Not that anyone cared to know. It'd been weeks since his death and no one even bothered to say his name since that day.
« • »
Three days before the moving truck is scheduled to come pick up their stuff, Melita is home in the midst of packing up the remainder of the bookshelves when the doorbell rings. Upon answering, she is wordlessly handed a stack of envelopes by the mailman before he returns to his route. Melita absently flips through the stack, kicking the door shut behind her as she hums to herself. Everything in her hands is meaningless junk mail and flyers for services she and Harry have no more use for. She dumps the entire stack in the kitchen garbage but pauses when her attention snags on a thick white envelope. She fishes it out of the trash, her curiosity piqued, and immediately frowns when she sees her name typed on the envelope but no return address.
